Waggott spells out Sky Blues amibition

Development director spells out ambition to play bigger part in local area...

Coventry City development director Steve Waggott spelled out the club’s ambitions to play a bigger part in the local area – including the business community – at the launch of a new networking club.

Sky Blues Business Networking will meet every second Monday morning in the month, welcoming companies from across Coventry and Warwickshire to hear the latest news on the club as well as network with one another.

The newly launched club attracted around 30 local business people with the aim of building the event over the coming months.

The first event was sponsored by Tinderbox – a business development company – and companies heard from Kevin Springthorpe on how to ‘ignite’ a culture change within a firm.

Prior to that, Waggott told the gathered firms that the club had begun the process of placing itself back at the heart of the community on all levels.

He said: “I have seen it happen before. When I went into Charlton, it was in the position of having tumbled from the Premier League down to the third tier.

“We put a huge focus on the community – including businesses – and by the end of my time there we were engaged with everyone from Boris Johnson to tens of thousands of children who benefitted from the work we were doing.

“I also saw it at Newcastle, where Kevin Keegan went in and just lit the touch paper and it not only galvanised the club, it galvanised the whole city and attracted investment and opportunity.

“We need to do the same here. We have started the process with our One Goal initiative which is already giving opportunities to local children and families that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

“We had 500 extra people at the match on Saturday through One Goal and the aim is keep growing and growing.

“The business community is vital too. We need to support one another and it has to be reality rather than rhetoric.”

Tynan Scope, corporate sales manager for Coventry City, said Sky Blues Business Networking would become a regular date in the business calendar.

He said: “We are grateful for the support from companies such as Tinderbox at our first event.

“From now on, the second Monday of each month will see us hold a Sky Blues Business Networking breakfast event. It’s a great way to kick-off the working week and is an opportunity to find out a bit more about what is happening here at the club and also to network with other firms from the region.”